


You Never Know What You're Going to Need, Until You Need It

by bees_stories



Series: The New Team Torchwood Adventures [11]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alien Invasion, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Awesome Toshiko Sato, Case Fic, Gen, Ianto Jones Backstory, Post-Season/Series 01, Post-Season/Series 02, Teamwork
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 07:59:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7039720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bees_stories/pseuds/bees_stories
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Andy asks why Torchwood Three keeps all the flotsam and jetsam thrown out by the Rift. To answer his question, Jack has Ianto relate the story of how an earlier version of the team helped stave off an alien incursion. A post series 1 adventure related during the New Team Torchwood era.</p><p>Beta by: rabecka. Thanks for the assist!</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Never Know What You're Going to Need, Until You Need It

*****

"You've got one of those looks, Andy Davidson. What's eating you?"

It took an effort, but Andy resisted the urge to run his palm over his face. He could feel the tight set of his jaw, and knew that alone was enough to communicate to Jack that there were uneasy thoughts spinning around in his head. He flexed his palms instead. His hands were sore from gripping the handles of the containment unit, and it felt good to release some of the tension in them. 

With a shrug, he glanced around the Secure Archive. "It's this place," he explained. "The Archive. All the junk on the other levels, and all these boxes in this special vault that contain God knows what horrors. Why do we keep them?" 

Ianto had led the way to the resting place of their latest damned treasure and then he had stepped away to make notations at a computer terminal a few feet behind where Andy and Jack stood. Andy turned, so he could face both of his teammates, and asked, "Why don't we run it all through a crusher and then put the remains into the hottest incinerator we can build?"

It seemed to Andy to be a legitimate question. Why would Torchwood keep what was tantamount to a lit powder keg in their sub-basement?

"Do you want the easy answer? Or the truth?" Jack asked in a way that suggested either would be fine with him.

Ianto cleared his throat in a way that Andy had learned to interpret as _Don't play cute, this is serious._

Jack glared at Ianto with an annoyed expression that he dropped as soon as he remembered that they weren't alone, and then he shrugged at Andy. "The short answer is, Because there's a Torchwood Directive signed by Queen Victoria herself that says don't get rid of anything." Jack shrugged. "Maybe she did it because she had pack rat tendencies. But maybe – "

He broke off the thought and stared off into space for a few seconds. "There was a song back during World War Two, _You Never Know Where You're Going Till You Get There_. Know it?"

Andy shook his head, temporarily thrown off balance by the non sequitur. "Can't say that I do."

Jack pulled a face. It was if he knew that he was about to take the long way round to get to his point, but that it couldn't be helped. "Well, it's a bit like the song, except instead of not knowing where you're going, you don't know what you'll need when you finally get where you're going."

Andy shook his head again. "Still not with you, boss."

Jack pressed his lips together for a moment and then he brightened. "Okay, try this then. As scary as some of this stuff is, sometimes it's damn handy to have around." He tipped his head towards the container they had just shelved. "The gal we took this off of was using it to rob lab technicians of their wills so that she could make them sabotage a rival's research project. Not nice." He gave Andy a look that suggested he was about to get to the clever bit. "But what if there was a way to use it to cure phobias or something? Then it becomes a boon to mankind."

He glanced around the cavernous space and then pointed at a small containment unit at the end of the row. "See that box there? It's got a device in it that lets you make perfect copies of whatever you want. Want a million quid? Piece of cake. That makes it dangerous. But imagine the possibilities. An alien plague ship crash lands on Earth, and whatever they're carrying is transmittable to humans. They have a single dose left of the cure. We can use that machine to synthesise a thousand doses. Treat everyone exposed – " He snapped his fingers. "Just like that."

Andy considered the possibilities. He looked around the room at the rows of shelving units and felt his imagination start to break free of its moorings. The potential to do both immense good and terrible evil was a bit much to process.

He pointed at a box at random. "And what about this? What can it do?"

Jack looked sharply at Ianto. Ianto met his gaze. They communicated volumes without saying a single word, and Andy got a sinking feeling in his gut that suggested maybe he didn't really want to know the answer after all.

"It's a story that should be told," Ianto said at last. "It could save lives. And after all, Jack, it's not as if Gwen can be harmed by the knowledge of what really happened that day. Not any more."

Jack blew out a breath through pursed lips, but then he nodded. "Yeah, okay, but since you were there, you ought to tell it." He turned to Andy and shadows of remorse made his features sombre as he stalked down the row and retrieved the containment unit from the shelf, undid the latches and safety seals, and then displayed its contents for Andy to get a good look at.

As deadly weapons went, it was pretty inauspicious looking. A black box the size of an old fashioned transistor radio, dotted with what appeared to be indicator lights and switches. Coiled in a holder mounted in the lid were sets of wires with flat pads on the ends. It could have been a radio receiver or an alien entertainment unit. It certainly didn't seem to merit Jack's expression of regret as he looked down upon the device.

"What is it?" Andy asked.

Ianto answered softly, "It holds a person's essence. Their thoughts. Their memories. All the things that makes them, them, and then allows it to be transferred into the mind of another person. We never gave it a nickname. After what happened, it didn't seem appropriate."

Without meaning to, Andy shook his head. It was an automatic reaction over which he had no control. The idea was fantastic. Ludicrous, even. It had to be a wind up, and yet Jack and Ianto were both standing there with matching expressions that were as serious as the grave.

"That machine," Ianto continued in the same funereal tone, "was once instrumental in protecting Torchwood Three."

"Go on." Again, the dismissal was automatic. Even after all the amazing and outlandish, and frankly unbelievable things Andy had seen and experienced in his tenure as a police constable patrolling the streets of Cardiff, and then as a Torchwood operative, what Ianto was saying seemed ridiculous.

"I assure you, this is the God's honest truth. It happened several years ago. Jack had left without warning, on a long anticipated, but unexpectedly timed sabbatical. Fortunately, the contingency plan to deal with his absence was already in operation."

"Before I left, I died," Jack cut in when Ianto seemed hesitant to go into detail. "It took me longer than usual to resurrect, and then almost as soon as I was back on my feet, I had to leave." He grimaced at the memory. "It was a case of bad timing all the way around."

The look Jack exchanged with Ianto was telling. Even though years had passed, what had happened during that time was still a source of heartache.

"We carried on," Ianto continued with a shrug that seemed to acknowledge both the circumstances he was relating and the unspoken apology. "Owen Harper, who was Second at the time, continued as Acting Director, and the rest of us did our duties. Mine, on the day an invasion fleet entered the solar system, involved ferrying a rift returnee to Flat Holm, which was still a secret from the rest of the team. I had just tied up the _One Day at a Time_ and was on my way back to the Hub, when all hell broke loose.

*****

**Four Years Earlier**

_Ianto? Where the hell are you?_

He was running behind and hadn't had coffee waiting when Owen stalked into the Hub, that's where he was. Ianto sighed and accelerated through an amber light that was on the verge of turning red. He should have had plenty of time to make the run out to Flat Holm, but Margaret Maryhill had a seizure just as he was strapping her into the _One Day at a Time_ 's improvised medical bay. Getting her stabilised had delayed his departure by thirty crucial minutes, and additional complications had held him on the island long enough to seriously disrupt the rest of his morning's schedule.

"Five minutes away," he replied. "Monthly maintenance on the _Sea Queen_."

Ianto blew out a frustrated breath. The lie would cover his hoodie and jeans and somewhat dishevelled appearance. For an idle moment he considered telling Owen the truth. Being in over his head while dealing with Margaret's calamity had him seriously reconsidering his promise not to reveal the secret of the returnees.

There were good reasons to break his oath to Jack. Owen had been sitting in the Director's chair for over two months. There hadn't been so much as a phone call or a postcard from their wayward Captain, and there was no way to predict when the Doctor might bring him home again. Despite all that Jack had taught him, and even with the help of all the alien diagnostic and treatment gadgets aboard Jack's personal cabin cruiser, Ianto wasn't a properly trained medic. Sharing the burden of the care facility with Owen would mean the returnees could get critical assistance much sooner, and they wouldn't have to be alone on their journey to the island refuge.

 _But Jack had managed._

From the time Jack opened the hospital, until he had given Ianto the choice to come in on the conspiracy or be retconned, he had ferried the patients alone, tending to their needs to the best of his abilities until they could be delivered into safe hands.

_He entrusted the duty to you because he believed you could manage._

"I'll give him a month," Ianto promised himself as he pulled into the parking space nearest the Tourist Information Centre. "Four more weeks, and then, if he's not back, I'll tell Owen."

***

"Ianto." Toshiko's face lit up with a relieved smile. "Thank God you're here."

"What's the matter?"

A quick survey of the Hub and its occupants only told him that something was up, but gave no hint as to what. Gwen was at her workstation, tapping keys occasionally as she spoke into the mouthpiece of her headset. Owen was also on the phone. He stood near the tidal pool staring down at the water. The grave expression that drew his face into stark lines made him look older and more serious than usual as he alternately fired off questions and listened to their answers.

Toshiko was busy as well, but then again, she nearly always was. The latest alien device she had been experimenting on before the crisis hit had been haphazardly shoved to the corner of her desk to make room for a stack of files.

"Those break-ins, at the engineering and fabrication plants around the city, we think we've cracked what the perpetrators are up to," she explained. It seemed clear that the warm glow of success that came from putting the pieces of a particularly vexing puzzle together had faded almost as soon as it had bloomed. Now all that remained was an unremitting sense of urgency to find a solution to the latest threat. "Someone's building a transmitter."

"Why?"

Owen finished his call and glared up at Ianto. "Because they want to send a message. Obviously." He shook his head at Ianto's apparent stupidity and then said, "There's a large number of ships just passing Jupiter. Big ships. UNIT was hoping that they were heading through the system on their way to somewhere else, but the transmitter puts a more sinister light on the situation."

The implication was obvious. And frightening. "You think it's a homing beacon, Tosh? A way to focus an attack?"

Toshiko nodded. Without meaning to she traced the lines on the printout in front of her. Ianto knew it was an unconscious habit, a tactile response to the constant flow of data that she processed when she was doing pattern analysis. Although the pieces had fallen into place in what seemed like a logical way, something didn't quite seem right to her. "That appears to be the most likely scenario." There was doubt in her hesitant reply.

"That's the scenario UNIT's brass is mobilising for," Owen said as Ianto descended the catwalk to join the conversation.

"But there's something not quite right about it." This time Toshiko's doubts were voiced with greater conviction.

Gwen ended her phone call and tossed her headset onto the desk in a gesture of frustration.

"Bloody hell." She looked up at them and her expression was grim. "Power substations all over the city are failing, one after another. First a surge in demand and then boom!" She clapped her hands together forcefully. "Explosion. There are dead and injured at all the facilities. My contact at Emergency Services says if it keeps up there aren't going to be enough spare parts to fix the damage, even if there were enough trained people to do the work. They're appealing outside the area for assistance."

"They're crippling the infrastructure." Toshiko put a grim certainty into the announcement that made a chill run up and down Ianto's spine. "Taking out the power will affect communications and transportation as well."

"And the hospitals," Owen added. "They're making us sitting ducks."

"But why base their attack on Cardiff?" Toshiko mused. "What are they after?"

"Maybe it makes a change from London?" Ianto quipped before he could help himself.

"So what do we do?" Gwen rose from her chair and began to pace. "We can't just sit here while the city collapses around us."

Owen stared down at the water in the pool. It was obvious he was thinking hard and coming up empty. They needed to buy some time.

It was also clear that something unsettling was itching at the back of Toshiko's brain. Ianto felt it too. Something about the method.

_A surge of demand prior to the substations blowing..._

"What if the blowouts aren't intentional?" Gwen asked. "What if the surge is the enemy attempting to power their transmitter?"

Owen pivoted and nailed Gwen with an incredulous look. "What? You mean these whoever they are were smart enough to steal everything they needed to contact an invasion fleet, but too stupid to find a decent power supply? What do you think they're doing, Gwen? Dragging their transmitter from substation to substation with a pair of jumper cables in hand hoping to get lucky? Leave it out."

A terrible inspiration struck Ianto. "No, wait a minute." He went to Owen's unused workstation and logged into the terminal. When he pulled up a map of the Greater Cardiff area and the power grid that kept it running, X marks appeared over the stations that had been hit, forming a rough arc. While the others gathered to see what Ianto was doing, another X appeared on the screen, closely followed by another one on the opposite side of what was becoming a circle. "Taking out the main power station would probably generate the requisite power, but centralise emergency response efforts. Attacking the individual substations is causing a greater degree of damage." He looked up at his teammates. "So once the power system is in disarray, where around here has adequate resources to run a powerful transmitter?"

One by one the penny dropped and four sets of eyes shifted to the rift manipulator.

"You think we're the target?" Owen said, just as there was an explosion from above and the intruder alert signal began to blare.

"Shit!" Gwen snatched her handbag off the back of her chair, shuffled through the contents, and then pulled out her pistol. Tosh and Owen had taken to wearing theirs in holsters at the smalls of their backs. Ianto was unarmed. In his haste to get out to Flat Holm he had left the 9mm he normally carried in his gun safe. There was a backup in his desk, but it was too far away to reach in the few seconds that they had.

The sound of heavy boots followed closely on the sound of a second explosion.

Owen raked his gaze across the main level of the Hub, and it was obvious what he was thinking. The structural damage they had yet to repair had made them vulnerable. There was no way to keep an incursion force out.

"Defensive positions!" Owen shouted as he drew his gun and levelled it at the oncoming threat.

A quartet of thick-set aliens clad in body armour ran through the damaged cog door with rifle-like weapons at the ready. A second squad of four followed close at their heels. 

Gwen, Owen and Toshiko shot at them, emptying their magazines in blasts of staccato gunfire.

The aliens were unaffected. They returned fire, sending tongues of blue death lancing across the body of the Hub.

"Ianto! Armoury!" Owen shouted. "Everyone else, make for the lower levels! Go! Now!"

Ianto bolted just as the lights dimmed. Myfanwy called out querulously from her aerie, but made no move to investigate. She had been fed the day before and was sleeping off a mutton feast. In the armoury, Ianto scooped up as many loaded magazines as he could fit in his pockets, took a 9mm pistol for himself, and then he ran to catch up with the others.

They were invaded. The lock-down protocols designed to prevent alien threats from getting out of the Hub were no use to them against a hostile force determined to get in. They were rats in a trap, undermanned, outgunned, and soon, if they didn't get very creative, they would be outmanoeuvred as well.

They needed a miracle.

"Ianto!" It was Gwen's voice who hissed his name, but Owen's claw-like hand that yanked his shoulder and nearly pulled him off balance as he was jerked towards a disused office.

With difficulty, Ianto kept his feet, doing a shuffling dance to compensate before he was able to right himself. He yanked ammunition from the overloaded pockets of his hoodie and handed it out as he fought to catch his breath.

"What do we do, Owen?" Gwen's eyes seemed larger than usual, and her colour was high. "We can't just hide. People are depending on us!"

Owen shot her a sour look that said he really didn't need to be told the obvious. "For the moment we need to not get captured or killed." He turned his attention to Toshiko. She had the foresight to snag her laptop and equipment bag from her workstation and was seated on a dusty desk with her back propped against the wall, typing with rapid-fire speed.

After a few moments she looked up from the screen and her expression revealed that the news wasn't going to be good. "I've tapped into the CCTV network. The aliens that attacked us were just the forward assault team. There's at least a dozen more like them, and four others carrying equipment cases."

Owen stalked over to join Toshiko. For a second it looked as if he might grab the laptop from her, but then he pulled back. "What are they doing up there?"

Toshiko tapped at the keyboard and then peered at the screen. "Most of the activity is centred around the rift manipulator. It looks like they're trying to access its command and control unit."

Gwen rushed forward to get a look for herself. "Can they?"

Toshiko shook her head. "Not without the command codes."

"Then they're buggered." Owen gave them all a grim smile that didn't reach his eyes. "The codes have been changed. It was an automatic safety protocol that kicked in after the rift manipulator was used. The new codes won't even be generated for another year."

"They can't force the system somehow?" Gwen persisted.

Toshiko shook her head again, and then she turned the laptop's screen to face the rest of the team. Ianto did his level best not to shudder in revulsion. The incursion team was composed of aliens of multiple races. They were all heavily armed. They were all highly disciplined as they systematically ransacked the desks and workstations. The ones who were obviously tasked with technical robbery periodically shot worried glances at their commander as they were repeatedly stymied by Toshiko's gate-keeping systems, all of which were proving to be much more secure than the tunnels between the Tourist Information Centre and the main floor of the Hub.

She pointed at one of the invaders. He had weapons slung bandolero-style across his heavily armoured body and strapped around his waist. "We've got guns, but they have pulse rifles and laser pistols. We can't take them on as we are."

"There are powered weapons in the Archive." Ianto brought to mind an inventory of potentially useful items stored away in the levels below them. "Ones Jack and Suzie restored or refurbished. We could get them."

Owen nodded. "Do it. All you can carry. Gwen, you go with him. Tosh, you stay here with me." He still had his Bluetooth looped around his neck, and for the first time since their retreat he seemed to remember it was there. He pulled it into place. "UNIT High Command."

Nothing happened. With a gesture of disgust, Owen pushed the mouthpiece away.

Toshiko shrugged helplessly. "It's not us. They're blocking outgoing signals. No internet. No phones."

"What about the land line you installed in Jack's office after Suzie locked us in?" Gwen asked Toshiko.

Owen looked at the monitor, contemplating the invaders with irritation. "Maybe later." He glanced up and seemed surprised that Ianto was still there. "What are you waiting for? Move!"

Ianto, with Gwen at his heels, ran from the room.

***

"There's not as much to choose from as you'd think." Ianto played the beam of his torch around the space to supplement the blood-red glow of the emergency lighting. "Most of these things have some sort of power pack, and it's bloody hard to get replacement charging units from the local shop."

He tipped his head to let Gwen know she should follow, and then trained the beam so that it fell upon a workbench that ran along the right-hand wall. "Still, a few are operational. Mostly ones we salvaged from wrecks, or those that could be cobbled together from similar units." He picked up a pulse rifle, checked the charge level, and then handed it off to Gwen. "This was one of Suzie's pet projects, retrofitted with the battery from a power drill." Off of Gwen's dubious look he said, "Plenty of punch."

"What about Jack's big gun?" Gwen asked. "Surely they'd back down at the sight of it."

Ianto shook his head. "It's too bulky to carry easily." He mulled his limited choices further, considered the impact a concussion grenade might have on the repairs still underway, and ultimately decided that he would take them, but save them as a last resort. He selected a pair of laser pistols and another pulse rifle, both of which he handed off before moving to another section of the room to consider chemical weapons.

"What about that force shield thingy? The one Jack used with Carys Fletcher when she was infected with that sex pest alien." Gwen put her hand on Ianto's arm. "Can't we do something with it?"

"We'd have to lure them. One by one. Take them out. Still – " Any option was better than none, and who knew how or when luck might strike. Ianto pointed to the shelf opposite. "It's in that yellow case up there. Get it, and the box opposite. There's gas masks, and an anaesthetising agent in glass shells."

The clock was ticking. Gwen was juggling cases and weaponry, and Ianto was weighed down as well. Almost as an afterthought he unhooked a pair of wickedly sharp curved knives held in matching black leather sheaths from their pride of place next to Suzie's old workstation, undid his belt, and slipped the leather strap through the gaps in the sheaths. As a final impulse, he snatched up a string of sonic grenades, and looped them over his arm. "Come on, let's get back to the others."

Gwen nodded, and they were running once more.

***

"Owen, they're on the move." Tosh looked up from her laptop as Ianto cleared the doorway. The relief on her face was palpable. "They're searching the Hub."

Owen held out his hand and Ianto tossed a repulsor rifle to him. He caught it cleanly, and then inspected the weapon. "Seems simple enough."

Ianto distributed the rest of their meagre defences, keeping a laser rifle and matching pistol for himself as Gwen shut the door behind them. She was in the process of dragging a file case in front of it when the door burst open.

Owen reacted. He unslung the repulsor rifle from his shoulder and fired into the centre of a mass he hadn't even had time to get a proper look at. The alien flew backwards and then dropped like a sack of potatoes. 

"Tosh?" Owen cautiously edged around the doorway for a peek. The scout was down, but not out. He raised a pistol-shaped device and fired. Its beam caught Owen in a phosphorescent-yellow glow and he was caught, like a fly in radioactive amber. 

Without thinking, Ianto ran forward. He kicked the ray-gun out of the still prone alien's mitt-like hand, breaking the hold it had on Owen, and sending the weapon skittering dully down the hallway. Owen stumbled as he was released, but kept his feet. He fired his laser pistol point-blank at his would-be captor, but the beam didn't seem to do anything other than flare brightly against the metallic blue body armour. 

"Please tell me that he's alone," Owen said hopefully. He fired another burst from the repulsor rifle before retreating back into their temporary sanctuary. It sent the alien sliding down the hallway in the opposite direction from his paralysing ray-gun, and this time laid him out cold.

Toshiko was too busy gathering up her laptop and weapons to reply.

"Right." Owen took a deep breath and ducked his head out for another look. The sound of boots on concrete echoed ominously. "Shit!" he said quietly, and then with a nod of his head, "Out. Now."

They ran. The Hub had dozens of disused offices and laboratories. It had dust-laden dormitories, cells for prisoners, and storage areas. It had the multi-storied Archive, including an entire level devoted to wrecked spacecraft and old cars, but it had no panic room in case of an incursion.

"In here!" Ianto yanked open a door seemingly at random. Without hesitation, Toshiko dashed in after him, followed closely by Owen and Gwen.

"What is this place?" Gwen asked as she took in the array of metal tubes and panels marked with warning signs: High Voltage. Use Lockout Keys Before Attempting Maintenance. Change Filters Monthly.

"HVAC node," Ianto replied. He retrieved a step stool from its resting spot in the supply cupboard and placed it underneath a vent in the ceiling. When he opened the vent cover a rope ladder fell free. He tipped his head, indicating they shouldn't delay, and then held the ladder steady as Toshiko began to ascend. When she was half way up, Owen followed. "Come on, Gwen, you're next."

It looked as if they would make good their escape. Gwen handed off her pulse rifle to Ianto, took a breath, and the outer door flew open.

Panic made Ianto's chest feel as if it would burst. The invader, a tall, skinny yellow-hued alien, clad in the same sort of power suit as the others, levelled its weapon at them. Reflexively, Ianto smiled at it. And then he yanked the pulse rifle into firing position and squeezed the trigger.

Nothing happened. The charging circuit indicated it was still cycling. He threw one of the knives hanging at his waist. Incredibly, it dropped harmlessly to the floor an inch or so away from its target.

From the corner of his eye he watched Gwen rear back with a gas orb in her hand.

"Gwen! NO!" Ianto shouted. But it was too late. He took a sucking lungful of air and then clapped his hand over his nose and mouth as Gwen let the orb fly.

It bounced away harmlessly and then broke at the feet of the alien. It looked down at the puff of greenish smoke curiously, and then seemed to regard them with malevolent glee as Gwen sank to her knees.

Owen stuck his head through the hatch in the ceiling. He disappeared and then reappeared with the repulsor rifle. He fired it at the alien, who flew backwards and out of the room.

Lungs bursting from stress and lack of oxygen, Ianto leapt forward, scooped up a filter mask from the equipment case that held the remaining anaesthetic gas orbs, and jammed it over his face. He took a shallow breath and then scooped Gwen up off the floor and boosted her up the ladder and into the arms of Toshiko and Owen, hastily gathered up the gear Gwen had dropped, and then scrambled up the ladder unassisted.

"What the hell happened?" Owen demanded as they dragged Gwen's inert body down the air duct.

Ianto ignored the question. He was busy, trying to recall the configuration of the ductwork and the fastest way to a new place of safety. The duct reached a T-junction. He shut his eyes for a second, triple-checking his mental map, and scrambled to the right. "This way." After a long stretch of tunnel he said, "The pulse rifle didn't work. I threw a knife and it didn't connect. I think those suits they wear generate a protective field."

The tunnel narrowed and they were forced to work their way through it single file. When they reached a wider section they paused long enough for Ianto to orientate himself, crouching close together and taking shallow breaths of dusty air. 

Toshiko looked down at her satchels with a forlorn expression. "If I only had access to the right equipment, I could probably do something about those suits."

Ianto met her wistful smile with one of his own. Owen looked as if he might say something, but whatever he was thinking he kept to himself. He discreetly coughed dust from his lungs, and checked Gwen's pulse instead. His troubled frown said he didn't like the result.

At Ianto's prompting, they clambered on as silently as they could manage, burdened by the tight space, their weapons, and Gwen's body. After a long downward trek through a narrow pipe that forced Ianto to squeeze his shoulders in close against his body, he breathed a sigh of relief and pushed open a grate as he belatedly removed the respirator still clinging to his face. "It's not the most auspicious hiding place, but it's the best I could come up with on short notice."

He dropped another rope ladder down and then descended into the morgue, holding his arms out so that Owen and Toshiko could lower Gwen to him. He carried her over to a trolley and carefully placed her body upon it. "The gas she inhaled, it's not meant for humans. She's going to need medical intervention to be revived."

The morgue had a small isolation and treatment area adjacent to it meant for caring for victims of infectious alien diseases. Ianto began to wheel the trolley towards it.

"Don't bother." Owen regarded Gwen with a dispassionate expression. "The best I can do for her right now is put her in cryogenic stasis. Then, if we make it out of this, we can wake her up." He gazed at the wall of freezer units for a long moment, and then looked over at Ianto. "You helped me with Tommy Brockless, you think you could run the procedure on your own?"

Ianto nodded. "Why?"

"Because I'm thinking it might be a good idea to put me in there as well." Owen glanced up at the ventilation shaft they had just come out of. "You seem to know your way around this place. I reckon you've got the best chance of getting Tosh out. Then she could build something really lethal out of whatever bits and pieces she's dragging around with her and save the day."

"What aren't you telling us, Owen?" Toshiko asked. "It's something about the rift manipulator, isn't it."

Owen paused the frantic preparations he and Ianto were making to put Gwen into cryogenic stasis, and regarded Toshiko with what was almost a fond smile. "I should know better than to lie around you when there's anything technical involved. I can put things past Gwen, and sometimes even Ianto, but never you."

He rubbed a smear of grime off his cheek with the back of his hand. For a moment his focus shifted inward before he straightened his spine and met Toshiko's gaze once more. "What I said about the access codes was true, mostly. They were changed by the computer as soon as we used the manipulator. There was a delay, because the Rift isn't supposed to be opened without giving the space-time fabric a chance to heal. But I lied about the timing. New codes were delivered to Jack's, that is to say, my inbox, two weeks after we opened the Rift. If I get caught again and those aliens torture me, the information they want is right here." He pointed to his temple and smiled bitterly. "It, and all the rest of Torchwood's command restricted passwords and authorisation codes."

Toshiko met his eyes, and then her gaze drifted to her equipment bag. She seemed to come to a decision and unzipped the case. "I might have a way to protect you and the codes." Carefully she lifted a small, box-like apparatus from the bag. "It's something I've been working with on and off since I arrived at Torchwood." The box was followed by a pair of cables that ended in multiple flat-padded contacts on short leads. "The researcher who began the experiment was attempting to adapt it as a human-computer interface. I restored it to its original specifications to get a better understanding of its workings."

"Of course you did." Owen sounded dryly amused. He watched Ianto hook Gwen up to the necessary monitoring equipment. A few seconds later the telltale lights on the machine illuminated, announcing that she was beginning the first phase of stasis inducement. "What's it do, then?"

Toshiko contemplated the device for a couple of seconds. "It takes the … essence, I suppose would be the best way to describe it, of a person. Their knowledge and experience, and transfers it into the brain of someone else."

Owen's jaw dropped. "My … me ... in where?" He watched Toshiko's gaze travel to Gwen's slack and peaceful features. "You want to put _me_ in Gwen's head."

Ianto paused with his hand hovering over the controls that would initiate the next phase of the procedure.

"Your knowledge would be safe," Toshiko said with quiet certainty. "Those aliens couldn't torture it out of you."

Owen grimaced, knowing that Toshiko was right, and not liking it. "And if something happens to me? My body, I mean."

"The previous experiments weren't entirely successful, but there's a good possibility I could upload you into the central computer core."

"Bloody hell," Ianto said softly. "Is that why, at times, the computer seems to have a mind of its own?"

Toshiko nodded. Owen's expression, already incredulous, grew even more so.

Ianto glanced down at Gwen. "I don't want to put pressure on you, Owen, but if you're going to do this, it needs to be now."

Owen shot a glance at the monitoring equipment, assessing Gwen's condition. "And what about the rest of me? If my knowledge and memories are in Gwen's head then what use will I be to you lot?"

"You'll be functional," Toshiko replied. "You'll be a bit like a person with serious retrograde amnesia. You'll be able to function, to take on board new information and follow instructions, you just won't be _you_."

With a resigned nod, Owen moved to Gwen's side. "Can't say fairer than that." He shrugged. "Better get this over with. We still need the pair of you to escape and get us out of this mess."

Powering the device up and then attaching the contact pads to Owen and Gwen's temples was accomplished in a matter of moments. "You'll feel a sort of vibration and hear a buzzing noise," Toshiko explained.

Ianto shot Toshiko a worried glance, wondering how she knew how it felt to use the device, and then he smiled at Owen. "We'll get you back in there. Safe as houses," he promised.

"I'm holding you to that," Owen replied, and then the muscles of his face tensed for a few seconds before they went completely slack.

"Is that supposed to happen?" Ianto didn't want to doubt Toshiko's confidence in technology that she obviously trusted with Owen's life, but watching the effects of the transfer was deeply unsettling. It reminded him too much of Torchwood One, and of whispered stories about the research they had conducted in the restricted laboratories. 

"It will just be for a few more seconds." Toshiko watched the telltale lights on the machine with an intent expression that drew her features into taut lines. She flipped a switch. "I'm uploading his consciousness into Gwen … now."

More precious seconds ticked by. Ianto glanced at his watch. He had brought them to the mortuary because the medical bay was out of bounds, and it was the only place in the Hub he could think of where they could possibly help Gwen. As much as he wanted to chivvy Toshiko along, he held his tongue and prayed it was his imagination that was making the clomp of boot heels thud dully in the outer corridor. Nervously, Ianto glanced up at the rows of freezer units and prayed for the spirits of their fallen comrades to rise up and protect them long enough for them to make Gwen secure and then safely escape.

"It's done." Toshiko removed the leads from Owen and Gwen. Neatly she wrapped the wires around the box, and put the device back into its case.

"Right." Ianto spared Owen a single glance. Intelligence seemed to be seeping back into his slack expression. 

Guardedly he initiated the final phase of Gwen's cryogenic suspension. He watched as the clock counted down, and the lid of the tube closed over her body. "Sleep well," Ianto said softly as he imagined the soft hiss of cryogenic gas filling the chamber. The machine chimed, indicating that the process was complete. Dispassionately, he pushed the trolley holding the stasis pod to the end of the row and signalled the conveyor system that there was a new occupant to be housed.

The lift door opened and Ianto consigned Gwen to the place all Torchwood agents were meant to eventually rest. He offered a final silent prayer of safekeeping and then resolutely returned to Owen and Toshiko. "How is he?"

"I need a minute." Toshiko slapped Owen lightly across the face. He blinked, his eyelashes fluttering. The muscles of his eyelids trembled. He dropped his head and rolled it from side to side. "Owen, you need to wake up now."

There was no CCTV monitor in the morgue. Ianto gazed longingly at Toshiko's laptop, wishing he had thought to ask her to keep tabs on the location of the invaders. It had taken energy to operate the stasis machinery. Gut instinct told him that if the source of the power usage was identified they would be made vulnerable. "Tosh, we need to keep moving."

Toshiko slapped Owen again, this time with greater force. His head rocked from the blow. He looked up, and it was obvious he was both disorientated and confused as he raised his hand to his cheek.

"What's going on?"

Ianto smiled using the sort of smile he might use on a lost tourist. "You're fine. But we need to leave here now."

"Back through the air ducts?" Toshiko asked.

There was a network of service tunnels that ran through the Hub. From where they were currently located, it was a reasonably short trip down to the abandoned research labs. Ianto had cached tools and equipment in one of them when he was caring for Lisa. He shook his head. "This way."

Ianto took a key from his ring and opened a service bay door. He went back and gathered up as many of the weapons as he could carry. He looked uncertainly at Owen.

Toshiko shouldered her computer case and tucked a brace of pulse guns into the equipment satchel. "I can manage him. You just lead the way."

They set off guided by torchlight. From his months of furtive travel around the Hub, Ianto knew the service halls and maintenance corridors well. He could have travelled them easily, even without the dim safety lights that usually cast a yellowish pall over the tile and stone walls, but Owen was having difficulty. It was clear that the bleak surroundings frightened him, and he was beginning to resist their efforts to lead him. Toshiko offered Owen her torch, and that seemed to calm him. He let the beam play about a narrow stairwell, dispelling its shadows.

"Not much further." Ianto indicated they should take another flight of stairs.

Ten minutes later they had reached their destination. Toshiko exclaimed softly as Ianto illuminated a ring of battery operated lamps. "This is it." He surveyed the room with an expression of sadness. "I needed a place … "

He broke off. There wasn't really any need to explain further. Hesitantly, Toshiko put a hand on his arm, and smiled in a way that said she knew, she understood, and she didn't judge. After a moment she stepped away and began an inspection of the resources at their disposal, taking in the array of test gear, electronic circuitry scavenged from the Archive and Stores, and even Ianto's cache of books, CDs and other personal items, stored neatly near a camp bed.

"You slept here?"

Ianto was busy wiping dust off a worktable. "Sometimes. There was so much to be done in those first weeks. It was easier."

"I'm sorry, Ianto," Toshiko said as she put her bags down on the now pristine surface. "You shouldn't have had to do that alone."

Ianto's eyes clouded and then he shrugged away the complex web of feelings he associated with what had happened to Lisa. There was no point in rucking up his pain or guilt any longer. "It's the past." He smiled at Toshiko grimly. "It's the present we need to worry about."

When he had set up the lab as a base he had added to the CCTV network, piggybacking additional cameras into the system that covered his most frequented access routes and Lisa's hideaway. Now he opened the link to the enhanced network and switched from camera to camera, assessing the enemy threat.

He clenched his jaw when saw the mess they had made of the main floor of the Hub. Weeks of repair work had been undone. Three harried-looking technicians still circled around the rift manipulator, poking at it with weird-looking probes. At least a dozen trooper types were roaming the halls, weapons ready, searching.

"We're safe for now." Ianto put his palm against his temple and pressed against the throbbing of a headache. Caffeine withdrawal, he thought with a wry smile, and probably low blood sugar. The early morning ferry run to Flat Holm had disrupted his usual schedule. He had skipped breakfast and hadn't even had a coffee since the previous day. It was hard not to appreciate the irony that his body was craving stimulants when it was already flooded with adrenaline.

Owen was still coughing intermittently. He must have taken in a lungful of dust during their escape through the tunnels. Even Tosh seemed to be clearing her throat more than usual as she watched the intruders attempt to circumvent the rift manipulator's security protocols.

The lab had been his on-base retreat. The place Ianto went when he needed a quiet place to think, or grab snatches of sleep in between making himself indispensable to Jack or tending to Lisa's many needs. It was in this lab that he modified technology he had stolen from the Archives and Stores to help keep Lisa as comfortable as he could make her, not knowing at the time that many of the suggestions that she was giving him were actually coming from the cyberwoman she had already become.

He had worked, sometimes through the night. In a concession to his own needs he had set up a corner near the sink where he could brew coffee or boil a kettle. There was still a cache of ready meals, pot noodles, and other foodstuffs that could be eaten straight from the tin or wrappings, that he had never retrieved, and that Jack, for reasons of his own, had never cleared away.

An odd sense of nostalgia came over him as Ianto rinsed and then filled the kettle. He switched it on and then began the process of retrieving paper cups and plastic cutlery when he realised that someone should be keeping an eye on the intruders.

"Owen, can you help me?"

Toshiko gave Owen a smile and a reassuring nod. He rose, his expression uncertain, but joined Ianto at the monitoring station.

Ianto pointed at an empty screen. "I need you to let us know if anyone comes into this camera view. Can you do that?"

Owen frowned, as if he knew the request wasn't the sort of thing he might normally agree to, but then he nodded. Ianto pulled up a lab stool so that Owen could perch upon it, and then he went back to his self-appointed domestic duties.

They drank tea made with rich with sugar and shelf stable milk, and gnawed at stale energy bars as Toshiko used a circuitous route to tap into the computer system.

"What are you doing?" Ianto asked as he looked over Toshiko's shoulder.

"Those power suits make them practically invincible." Toshiko pointed at the screen where, on a graph, lines rose and fell. "If we could neutralise the force shield then we could use more of our weapons against them. Even the knife you're wearing would be effective. There are vulnerable points, here, here and here." She pointed at the neck, underarm and air-pack hoses of the lead alien. "I'm trying to determine what frequency they use remotely, but there's so much ambient energy already, it's difficult to get a fix." With an absent gesture Toshiko picked a cobweb from her hair and brushed it away. "If we had one of those suits, it would be easy-peasy."

Ianto thought of the inflatable cell. He retrieved it from the pile of equipment they had abandoned upon their arrival in his sanctuary. "What if we were to lure one of those scouts into this?" He held the device for Toshiko's inspection. "Would it trap him? Or would the two fields cancel each other out?"

Toshiko took the trap out of its case. She turned it over thoughtfully in her hands, and then tossed it away, activating the mechanism. With an intent expression, she reached for a meter and scanned the energy reading, and then she ported the result into her laptop. A bold line appeared on the computer screen.

"That's it!" Toshiko smiled triumphantly at Ianto. "They're the same frequency!"

"You can neutralise the suits?" It seemed too easy. There had to be a catch.

Toshiko was on her feet, looking through the inventory of stolen bits and pieces. "I can turn the field generator in that trap into a cancellation circuit if I just had a power booster – "

"Wrong box." Ianto went to the opposite side of the lab from where Toshiko was searching. "I kept the power cells and the other things that seemed to go with them over here."

He dug through a tray of rift flotsam and retrieved several likely looking candidates. Toshiko shook her head, repeatedly, and then took over the task herself.

The box of stolen parts was nearly exhausted when Toshiko crowed, "You beauty!"

"You've found something?"

Toshiko nodded. "I think this will do the trick."

Ianto felt a distinct sense of relief because the commander of the strike force had apparently lost his patience. He was pushing the technicians aside as a new member of his team arrived with something bulky in its arms. The technicians scrambled out of the way, giving one another uneasy looks.

"Good," Ianto said. "Because it looks like they're going to try and force the system."

Toshiko bolted to Ianto's side and looked at the CCTV feed. "We can't let them do that."

"We need a distraction," Ianto muttered. "Owen? Ideas?" He held up an apologetic hand. "Sorry." Owen wasn't much use if most of what made him Owen was currently residing inside Gwen's frozen body.

Owen shrugged back. "You need a distraction," he repeated agreeably.

Ianto stared at Owen for a long second, but forced himself to dismiss his concerns. Their medic seemed to be evidencing more neural damage than retrograde amnesia. He put a hand against his temple, thinking furiously. They couldn't hurt the aliens until Toshiko neutralised the field generators in the suits, but they could –

He couldn't think of anything. He was too tired. Too scared. Too outmatched. He glanced over at Toshiko, who was now working flat out trying to mate two disparate alien technologies, and silently apologised for failing her.

For failing them all.

The Archive was full of alien technology. Bits and pieces of other people's lives stolen away indiscriminately by the roving suction tube that travelled through time and space. There were weapons. There were personal belongings. There were toys, wind up dolls and self propelled robots. Even an early version of a radio controlled car.

"I've got an idea." Ianto sprang to his feet and split Owen's view so it included a shot of the main Hub. "Keep an eye on the screen, and hope for the best!"

Ianto ran through the network of service tunnels down to the next level and into the main Archive. He went straight to the section where they kept household goods, or at least what appeared to be household goods, snatching objects off the shelves and tossing them onto a trolley. Then he took his fastest secret route back to the main level.

Everything on Ianto's trolley was self-propelled. He had a vacuum cleaner. A hoverboard. A walking, talking toy bear. A six foot tall somersaulting clown, and a life-sized monkey that did tricks. He released all of them, one after the other, saving a toy aeroplane and helicopter – both with realistic attack sounds – for last.

The resulting chaos was momentarily satisfying. The aliens fired on the toy defenders, blowing them up. Ianto used the confusion to lob sonic grenades. The resultant noise was horrible; a loud, high pitched whine that was piercing enough to penetrate Myfanwy's mutton-induced fog filled the Hub.

Ianto clapped his hands over his ears as the pterodactyl shrieked in anger. She dove from her aerie in a red fury and began to attack the invading aliens.

Myfanwy's first strikes were ineffective. She could knock the soldiers to the ground, because of her size and momentum, but she couldn't seem to gain a purchase on the bulky body armour with her teeth or claws. Frustrated, she retreated, chose a new target, and attacked again, howling in fury as her flank was scored by laser fire. The angry pterodactyl swooped down and lifted a broad, blue-faced trooper off her feet and slammed her into one of her companions.

Ianto pumped a fist in triumph. Despite having nothing but scraps and sheer determination to work with, Toshiko had neutralised the body armour's protective field. The alien incursion force was vulnerable to attack.

He joined Myfanwy's assault, firing blasts from a laser rifle and lobbing concussion grenades that tossed soldiers around like unstrung puppets.

Weapons fire opened up from a new position. Ianto put a hole through the alien commander as Myfanwy tore apart one of the technicians limb from limb, and a blast from a pulse rifle sent a third member of the unit flying against the mangled remains of the cog wheel.

The silence, as the battle ended, was nearly deafening as Ianto counted the fallen insurgents and realised that, other than a few stragglers still roaming the lower levels, they had won.

Toshiko appeared with Owen in tow. They ran up the catwalk to Jack's office. "We'll get help," she called to Ianto, and then they were gone.

Ianto nodded. He crossed over to Myfanwy, who was busy shoving a protesting bulky green alien face first into the tidal pool. He made calming noises as he approached to inspect her injuries, and then carefully patted her on the flank. She growled, warning him to be cautious, and then lifted her head to regard him with inscrutable eyes.

The alien ceased struggling. Myfanwy nudged him one last time and then leant into Ianto's caress as he scratched her neck fondly. She was docile as Ianto led her into the medical bay, and uncommonly patient as he began to clean and dress her wounds.

*****

**Present Day …**

"And that was it, really." Ianto looked down at the machine. "Help came. First UNIT and then eventually, after they chased away the spaceships, the Judoon. They're a sort of galactic police force," he added for Andy's benefit. "Once the aliens were taken away and the Hub was more or less secured, we revived Gwen from cryostasis and used the machine to put Owen's consciousness back into his body."

"So Gwen was never in charge," Andy said with a soft chuckle. "Why am I not surprised? After I joined up she told me she ran the place while the boss was away."

Ianto shook his head. "No. She never was. Toshiko always figured that was a side effect of hosting Owen's consciousness. She thought being in command during a crisis must have weighed heavily on him, and that – " He seemed to struggle to put the theory into the right words. " – that responsibility impressed itself upon Gwen's psyche and became part of it. She honestly believed she was in command during Jack's absence. Because we were afraid of causing her harm, we never told her otherwise, and she was never the wiser."

Jack took one last long look at the object in the case, and then he locked it up tight again. "Now do you get the picture?" he asked Andy. "You never know when, if, or even how this so called junk will come in handy. Despite how it started out, that was a good day for Torchwood." He looked at Ianto and his pride was evident. "You, all of you, proved what I knew all along; you were capable of working as a team, even without me."

"I suppose so," Ianto replied quietly, and another voluminous look passed between them.

Andy cleared his throat. "Well, that's me educated." He offered the pair a light-hearted smile that he hoped might help lift the odd mood that had so suddenly descended over Jack and Ianto. "Ianto's description of climbing through all those dusty air shafts and such has made me thirsty. It seems to me a trip to the pub is in order, don't you think, boss?"

A drink really did sound like a fine idea. A drink in a pub full of normal people, who did normal things, seemed like just the place to process the story of near calamity that Ianto had just so matter of factly told. "I'll even buy the first round."

Jack grinned. He wrapped one arm around Ianto's shoulders and the other around Andy's. "Yeah, all right. You know, Ianto using self-propelled toys as a diversion reminds me of another story. Stop me if I've told you this one before. We were on Romulus Minor, not much of a planet, kind of a hole in the wall, really, when the king, it seems to me his name was Otto. Yeah, that's it. King Otto the 94th. He had this wind-up doll he was really fond of, if you take my meaning – "

Andy let himself be guided towards the exit as Jack set the scene. He couldn't tell if the story was meant to be a diversion, or another example of how solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems often came from unexpected places, but as long Jack's wild yarn didn't involve Torchwood under siege, he was more than willing to find out.

end


End file.
